Mu-43 Regular

I use the Pentax-A 50mm f1.2... It works well half a stop down (though still has some fringing in high contrast situations).. Wide open I find it has low contrast and bad purple fringing, can be OK still when converting to B&W but harder to deal with the results for colour photos...

I will get some samples up ASAP (I keep meaning to do it), I have a lot of unprocessed RAW files in lightroom at the moment.. lol..

The other thing I like about it is it will focus down to around 40cm which is much better than the m lenses (aorund 1m)..

EDIT: As for price I think they go for about $500 to $600 on ebay these days, maybe the M series is slightly cheaper, either way it doesn't matter as on u4/3 you obviously control the apeture on the lens not through the camera so it just depends what you can find at the time..

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My newly acquired Canon 55mm f1.2 S.S.C. is appropriately dreamy at f1.2 but sharpens up quickly. However if you're paying market prices it is a very expensive jump from f1.4 to f1.2 and there are many good f1.4 lenses available.

This is the only picture I currently have from the Canon (aka the cannon!) at f1.2.

Mu-43 Top Veteran

The Nikkor 55/1.2 is sharp over the center 2/3rds of a 35mm frame. On a Nikon DX format camera, or mu-43 camera, you get the sharpest portion of the lens. The 50/1.2 was introduced to improve the edge-to-edge sharpness, important for 35mm and of course, FX format Nikons.

Usually, the 55/1.2 cost much less than the 50/1.2. You can get older Non-AI versions (pre-1978) which work perfectly on mu43 cameras, again cost less.

The 55/1.2 is older, goes for less than the 50/1.2. The 55/1.2 is sharp over the center 2/3rds of the image. On 1.5x and 2x crop cameras, the Nikon DX and u43 respectively, you get the best portion of the image.

Mu-43 Top Veteran

The F1.2 is now my "Third Fastest Lens" that I can use on the u43. The fastest is the Canon 50/0.95. It is twice as heavy as the F1.2, uses 72mm filters.

Picked up the 50/1.1 Nokton last week, tried it out on the Leica M8 this past weekend.

Wide-Open on the Leica M8:

I will try it out with my M-Mount adapter. Size and weight about the same as the Nikkor 55/1.2.

One note: This lens and the 35/1.2 Nokton BOTH required building up the RF cam by 0.05mm. Manufacturers make different assumptions about film bow, etc. Using on my Digital camera, I "optimized" it for wide-open on the digital Leica. It is quite sharp compared to other superspeed lenses that I own. This lens is a bargain at $1000 compared to other RF lenses. On a mirrorless camera, the RF cam is irrelevent.

Mu-43 Top Veteran

I asked the same question you asked before getting this last summer, but now that I have it, I am glad that I did - it gets a lot of time on my GF1 body.

As Brian pointed out, this is a big, heavy lens. And with with the adapter, its looks like a super zoom when paired with a MFT body. The build quality is great and it feels very solid when paired with my GF1 (I personally like the heft). Since the GF1 doesn't have in-body IS, the weight can work against you though when shooting low light (especially if your hands shake like mine).

Here a few low light shots from July 3rd that I don't think my other lenses could capture. Candlelight and sparklers for illumination - wide open at ISO 800 between 1/25 and 1/40:

Mu-43 All-Pro

Wow, thanks guys for all the useful feedback and samples! Looks like I'm going to get the Nikkor 50mm f/1.2 or maybe a Nikkor 55mm f/1.2 AI so that I can use it on my D300s as well. A Voigtländer Nokton 50mm f/1.1 looks even better wide open, but it's a bit outside my price bracket.

Most of my shots were wide open. I have a UV filter on my lens and in low light I sometimes get green spots (see lower right in my second night photograph). My understanding is that it is reflections of light sources from my UV filter.

Mu-43 All-Pro

Possibility if this is because of the smaller sensor? There are topics about making baffles somewhere to reduce it, but hasn’t got the guts to try it.
At the aperture ring, it’s only Not much choice, but it’s usually negligible on the next stop (f/2)

Nikkor lenses with a max. aperture of f/1.2 offer a non-designated click-stop for f/1.4 between f/1.2 and f/2. I know this from a Nikkor 55/1.2 I've owned before. My Nikkor 50/1.8 also offers a non-designated click-stop for f/2 between the numbers 1.8 and 2.8 on the scale.

On another note: studying the various image samples it seems bokeh can be a bit nervous wide open, especially visible in this one from Stephen Geis. Sorry Stephen, had to upload your picture to my own gallery to make it visible here.

Last week I couldn't resist buying a Minolta MD Rokkor 50/1.4 for € 40. I think I'm going to evaluate that one first on its performance at f/2 before slashing out € 500 for a good Nikkor 50/1.2 because I expect to have to stop down the Nikkor to f/2 anyway for good performance. OTOH, I might just loose my patience and buy the Nikkor.